Review of 5-3-1997 episode (MD-220) ========================================================================== Hell Date: Woman (Nicole Sullivan) dates a man (Pablo Francisco) who does impressions of Keanu Reeves and Arnold Schwartzenegger, trashes her living room, and falls out her window. This was probably the apex of Pablo Francisco's Mad TV career (why didn't they keep this guy?). Few would dispute that he steals the show here; even though Nicole Sullivan was good, this sketch was Francisco's moment to be the cynosure of the Mad TV audience. Also funny here is the irony of this guy apparently at first behaving in a calculated manner in order to impress the girl (like telling her that he ran up six flights of stairs to get to her apartment on time), but ultimately ruining it by acting like a lunatic. Opening Segment: Phil LaMarr introduces Ryan Stiles, then the two do some improv, a la "Whose Line is it, Anyway?" The crowd suggests Shakespeare at a laundromat; Stiles struggles through the bit, but LaMarr performs a brillant soliloquy about a man who has a dollar bill but no coins, and thus cannot wash his clothes. Stiles then tells LaMarr to stop because he's making a fool of himself, when it is clear that Stiles is upset because he was upstaged. This was funny, especially LaMarr's bit, in addition to the irony of one of the stars of WLIIA being upstaged. Interesting is that I think this was BEFORE "Line" aired in the U.S.; I think in mid-1997 it was a U.K.-only show, though I could be wrong. Also interesting is that LaMarr himself has actually appeared on WLIIA. This was certainly a lot of humor here, and it was definitely funnier than the WLIIA parody they did late in season four. Lex Jackson: Michael Jackson (Phil LaMarr) appears on the Oprah Winfrey (Debra Wilson) Show, and discusses his plan to kill everyone over twelve (but not himself - he's twelve, you see). But his plan is thwarted by the Laird of the Dance, Michael Flatley (Dave Herman). This is a little wierd - why would the ultimate confrontation be between a riverdancer and Jackson (KISS seemed a more logical choice, since they like Jackson are musical artists) - but this is still good, mainly for LaMarr's portrayal of Wacko Jacko (I think this was the second appearance of the character), although Wilson's Winfrey was good, too. Perfect Match: This is a sketch about a man (Ryan Stiles) and his fiancee (Mary Scheer), who are having dinner at a restaurant. They talk about how they are perfect for each other; et-cetera. Since now they shouldn't have any secrets, the man reveals that he has had five lovers before this relationship (loser! At least that's what I thought) - and the woman reveals that she has had over twenty thousand (and that's not counting Europe). This sketch was OK; it wasn't hilarious or anything approaching that, but it was well-executed by Stiles and Scheer. The Voyages of Sinbad: Greek gods (Debra Wilson, Bryan Callen, Dave Herman and the rest) debate over whether to destroy Sinbad (Phil LaMarr). They agree to set upon him a task - to save a village from a cyclops - and if he succeeds, he will be allowed to live. He succeeds, but one of the gods decides to destroy him anyway. LaMarr does a very good impression of Sinbad - even though he doesn't really physically resemble Sinbad. The decision to kill Sinbad even though he succeeds may be a clever sociopolitical commenatary on America: i.e. Americans would rather solve their problems by winning a fight than by resorting to nonconfrontational means. Or perhaps not. Either way, this segment was fairly ambitious and by and large, it succeeds. Monologue - Ryan Stiles: Ryan Stiles performs a little song about how women go crazy for his big toes. Stiles seems to really get into it, and funny here is that by the end of the song, Nicole Sullivan, who introduced Stiles, is sweating profusely and smoking a cigarette. Musical parody has been done before on this show, but not quite in this way, and usually not by guest hosts. This was definitely one of the most notable appearances by a guest star on Mad TV. Toby Robbins: Robbins is a slave who realized that he could turn the tables on your master by kicking his ass. He pedals his personal empowerment plan which includes a pair of shoes with which to kick you master in the butt. Funny is that even though master waits on the slave, he still calls him "boy." This segment was OK. Anya: Anya (Debra Wilson) is a cook who does catering for parties; her cooking involves unhygenic practices like spitting in the food and using water imported from Mexico. The guests at the party get sick and one of them even dies. One of the guests (Ryan Stiles) is on trial for embezzlement and thus he wants Anya and her niece (Nicole Sullivan) to send a breakfast platter to two of the witnesses. It's probably not the most original idea (comedy bits based on unhygenic cooking practices are probably at least as old as Orwell's account of Maxim's), but this was good anyway, and I wasn't expecting Stiles to participate either, so that was interesting. Apartment Visitor: A man (Phil LaMarr) visits one of his friends (Bryan Callen) at his apartment, and promptly starts a fight with a man by dropping a TV set on his dog. He also manages to annoy other apartment dwellers, then leaves, even though he challenged the man with the dog to a fight. I don't think this is really A-list material, but I still got a good laugh when LaMarr sprayed whipped cream all over the baby. I give it a thumbs up. The Presentation: The mother of three children (Nicole Sullivan) gives a presentation to her kids about how her life has taken a different direction than she thought it would when she was a teenager. She has two charts: one is called "My Wonderful Life" (what she thought was going to happen) and "My Walking Nightmare" (the reality). She then tells the kids she's leaving them and her husband, and she's going to move back in with her parents and go back to high school. Funny here is when Sullivan touches the yellowing paper graphically depicting her "wonderful" life and says "THIS is my life." The best line here is when Sullivan says, "this doesn't mean mommy doesn't love you [the kids] anymore; it just means you're not real to her." Also we get an excellent punch line here: the oldest kid, completely unfazed by the presentation, simply picks up the remote and says "[d]on't worry; grandma always sends her back." Although I don't know anyone like this from personal experience, there are probably people like this if they wrote a sketch about it. [Therefore, it's funny, because it's true!] Again probably not A-list stuff but very good. Spy vs. Spy - Brick Wall: Black Spy lies in wait for the White Spy behind a brick wall, but the White Spy gets the black spy by displacing one of the bricks. This was up to the usual Spy vs. Spy standard (funny). Closing Segment: Ryan Stiles says goodnight. As the credits roll, Bryan Callen and Nicole Sullivan attempt to do an improv bit (a moose at a pharmacy?). This was about average for a season two ending. ========================================================================== Almost every season two episode (except MD-211) had a guest host, and in very few instances did having a guest host really help the show. In my opinion, this is one of the few cases where it did. Ryan Stiles dominated almost every segment in which he performed (and just for the record, I rarely watch Drew Carey or WLIIA, so I'm not really a fan of his work at all). The song about the big toes was funny, and he enhanced both of the sketches in which he appeared, neither of which I thought were otherwise noteworthy sketches. As for the rest of the show, we start off with two excellent segments: Hell Date and the WLLIA bit; the rest of the show ranges from just OK to very good. Before I re-screened this, I had a more favorable impression of this episode; I thought it would be a clear-cut winner over the recently rescreened MD-221. On repeated viewing, it doesn't hold up quite as well, but is still very good - at least maintaining, if not exceeding, the high standard the show established in season two. (8/10)